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Turns out I did regret the decision to sell. So much so that I recently contacted the guy I sold it to. Come to find out, it's been sitting in his shop for a couple of years after it developed a bottom end knock. He indicated that he would sell it back to me for quite a bit less than I sold it to him. I made the drive to central Kansas and trailered it home last week.

In the 4-1/2 years he owned it, he was able to complete the DIY coilovers, get the AC system working again, and a whole bunch of other small maintenance/repair stuff.

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited to have it back, but a little nervous on what it'll take to get it running again. Compression test shows no pressure in cyl #3 and a couple bent valves could be seen on the borescope. I'm starting to disassemble the engine now. Maybe it's time to swap something different into it.

awesome! I felt the same way when I sold mine a couple years ago. "what have I done?" if it had a little more power I would have been happier and probably never had sold. now is your chance... aan, 3b or 7k. wish I had done it...

awesome! I felt the same way when I sold mine a couple years ago. "what have I done?" if it had a little more power I would have been happier and probably never had sold. now is your chance... aan, 3b or 7k. wish I had done it...

In a weird coincidence, a $400 ‘91 200 Avant popped up for sale this week, which is pretty rare around here in Oklahoma. Sadly, I missed it by a couple of hours.

Frankly I'm shocked this thread was resurrected... it's a rare occurrence to actually get back the one that got away! Good luck with your project. If I was anywhere near Oklahoma I'd sell you the bone stock AAN out of my S6.

Frankly I'm shocked this thread was resurrected... it's a rare occurrence to actually get back the one that got away! Good luck with your project. If I was anywhere near Oklahoma I'd sell you the bone stock AAN out of my S6.

Yeah, I didn't really expect the guy to say he still had the car. I'd love to run across a stock 3B or AAN that is even somewhat local.

I've been working on it a little at a time and have drained the coolant and oil, removed all of the intake, valve cover and head bolts. I started to remove the exhaust manifold, but could not get to the 2 rear nuts on the bottom. So, I moved to the EM/downpipe flange. Next is to separate the head.

Just some notes along the way:

I work slow!

There are wasp and muddobber nests EVERYWHERE on this thing. I wish I would have taken pictures of them...it would make quite a collage.

I probably shouldn't care about breaking/shearing bolts and that's part of the reason I am so slow.

I only got a very small of amount of coolant out when I drained it. But I didn't see any in the oil.

I went to put #1 at TDC and align all of the timing marks before removing the timing belt. And I think this thing is out on its timing.

In the pics below, #1 is at TDC(verified with a long 1/4” extension) and the crank pulley marks are lined up. But it looks like the cam pulley is off by a couple of teeth and the camshaft marks aren’t lining up. Am I seeing that correctly?

Doesn’t matter much anyways. But it might help explain what happened to it. Maybe it skipped a tooth? Or the PO did it intentionally hoping for performance gains?

Going to inspect the cylinder walls for signs of damage and then check the piston deck height across all cylinders. If everything looks okay there, the plan is to take the head to a local machine shop to have it checked out.

The deck clearance numbers showed cylinders 1-4 were about +0.5mm (above) and #5 was about -0.5mm (below). I decided to not spend any more time/money on the original 7a engine. So, it is out and on the stand. With it stripped down to just the short block, it was pretty easy to remove by myself with just a jack.

So, it looks like I'll have a replacement 7a on the way soon, thanks to a generous member of the vintage Audi community. Hopefully, this will get her back on the road until I can source a proper swap.

My car came with the late 7a and the replacement looks to be an early 7a. I understand that the wiring harness, ECU, and ISV are some of the more important differences between the two. Some questions I have regarding the differences in the early and late 7a's:

1. Are there other differences I should be aware of?
2. Can I simply use my original intake manifold, TPS, and ISV for the swap?
3. What about running the bag o snakes without a heat shield? Seems like there are too many electronics, rubber bits and intake parts that are too close.

I'd like to say all that stuff should swap over just fine, but I don't know enough about 7A's to definitely say one way or the other. Lots more knowledgeable vintage Audi guys on motorgeek or QW or Project Pad will be able to help you out with those queries.

I'd like to say all that stuff should swap over just fine, but I don't know enough about 7A's to definitely say one way or the other. Lots more knowledgeable vintage Audi guys on motorgeek or QW or Project Pad will be able to help you out with those queries.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I have a few of these threads going. It seems the vintage crowd has been using facebook mostly, which I'm not a fan of really. So I posed the questions in a few places. It seems I'm on the right track.

I've noticed that too and I'm also not exactly thrilled about it. On the one hand, it's very convenient to troubleshoot or just "talk shop" while you're also interacting with the rest of your social circle. Also, throwing a question on FB can often mean much quicker replies, a much larger audience, and/or more input. However, it comes at the expense of a finite lifespan.

A forum thread can be searched, archived, stickied, bookmarked, linked, etc. but on Facebook, no matter how valuable or relevant the information may be (for you or anyone else who comes along in the future), it eventually disappears off the front page, and that's all she wrote. And then the same questions get asked over and over again. The more that people migrate away from forums and onto FB, the more it compounds.

I can't count how many times the "eureka!" piece of information I was looking for came from a 12 year-old thread on a forum somewhere.

I've noticed that too and I'm also not exactly thrilled about it. On the one hand, it's very convenient to troubleshoot or just "talk shop" while you're also interacting with the rest of your social circle. Also, throwing a question on FB can often mean much quicker replies, a much larger audience, and/or more input. However, it comes at the expense of a finite lifespan.

A forum thread can be searched, archived, stickied, bookmarked, linked, etc. but on Facebook, no matter how valuable or relevant the information may be (for you or anyone else who comes along in the future), it eventually disappears off the front page, and that's all she wrote. And then the same questions get asked over and over again. The more that people migrate away from forums and onto FB, the more it compounds.

I can't count how many times the "eureka!" piece of information I was looking for came from a 12 year-old thread on a forum somewhere.

Exactly! I hate to think about all of the useful information that will be lost if motorgeek were to go down. It's a ghost town nowadays.

(2) 25mm x 10mm threaded sleeves. Threaded for M6x1.0. They come in a 10 pack. Joined together with an M6x1.0 bolt that I cut the head off of. I added this to my list of parts because I couldn't tap the ends of the steel pin.

Serviced the injectors this weekend.

And one of the reasons for the lack of any real progress. Been fighting the leaves the past couple of weekends.

Refreshed the heat shield on the AC line that runs from the dryer to the firewall. Found this one with Velcro on Amazon and cut it to fit the length.

Old

New

Had the flywheel resurfaced.

Also discovered that I’ll need a new radiator. Ordered a Hella/Behr radiator from Rock Auto.

AND...Got the replacement 7A bolted up yesterday. This was my first time doing this, so it took a lot longer than it should have. It felt like wrestling a gorilla at times, but once it was lined up right, it slid right it.

Spent some time chasing down a no spark issue. Lots of things that it could be. Turned out to be the hall sensor/distributor. After I swapped in my spare, the engine was showing signs of trying to start, but it was chugging and bucking quite a bit. One too many attempts and it locked up and the starter wouldn’t turn it over. I hand cranked it a little and heard some awful grinding sounds that I originally though were coming from the engine internals. But it turned out to be the starter.

After reading up on what causes a broken starter nose cone, I figured it was engine kickback. Basically, ignition is happening a touch too soon (i.e. ahead of TDC) ...causing the engine to rotate in the wrong direction. It's violent, as evident by the damage to the starter.

So, I adjusted the distributor alignment and installed a replacement starter and she runs! First time in several years.